


youth

by GallifreyanFairytale



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), Boys Kissing, Dorks in Love, Lack of Communication, M/M, Minor Violence, Nonbinary Ashlyn Caswell, Nonbinary Seb Matthew-Smith, Party, Songfic, because theyre both stubborn and nervous, but no actual alcohol consumption in the text, i love them, references to drinking, when i say i would die for redky i mean it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21990454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale
Summary: neither red nor ricky want to face what happened at ej's halloween party, but avoidance can only work for so long.based on the song 'youth' by wild wild horses
Relationships: Big Red/Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 59





	youth

**Author's Note:**

> this is based on the song [youth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn2Lsvd6kYQ) by wild wild horses
> 
> this has background seblos and technically i wrote this with gini being together in mind, but there's nothing that explicitly says they're dating so you can read them however you want. 
> 
> tw for mentions of alcohol and very mild violence (literally just one punch)
> 
> uhhhh i think that's all! enjoy!

**_youth is the lion we can’t tame_ **

Red had never been a fan of parties. He would much rather stay home playing video games or doing _literally_ anything else besides watching two kids he didn’t even know play Beer Pong at EJ’s Halloween party. But Ricky had all but begged him to come, and Red couldn’t say no to Ricky.

“Hey,” Ricky nudged Red’s arm with his. “Gina said the theatre kids are playing a game in the basement.”

Red ignored the tingling sensation where Ricky’s arm had touched his and breathed a sigh of relief, thankful for the escape from awkwardly standing around with nothing to do.

**_we’ve got that wild blood in our veins_ **

Ricky and Red were met with the sight of Gina and Nini setting up a game of Cards Against Humanity while Seb and Carlos were cuddling while talking quietly to Ashlyn and Kourt. Ricky sat down next to Nini, and Red sat next to him.

Once the cards had all been dealt, everyone picked up their set and began to read. Almost immediately, Seb groaned. “I really hate this game.”

Ricky wanted to agree, but he stayed silent. Gina flipped over the first black card and the game began.

**_youth is the fire, you’re my flame_ **

Red was almost grateful the game dissolved into chaos a few rounds in. Mostly because when everyone dispersed, it left him and Ricky alone. Ricky was shuffling the cards absentmindedly while Red tried to figure out what song was playing on the main floor above their heads.

Ricky dropped the cards suddenly and looked at Red. “You wanna go back upstairs? I’m hungry.”

“Oh. Uh, sure,” Red answered awkwardly. Ricky stood up and reached his hand down to Red, who took it. Ricky didn’t let go as he lead Red upstairs and through the crowds of people. Thankfully, no one was paying much attention to them.

**_and it’s just me, just you_ **

Ricky didn’t know how it happened but he and Red ended up in some empty room, just around the corner from all of the dancing and shouting, and they were definitely closer than they should have been but Ricky couldn’t find it in himself to care. He hadn’t had anything to drink because he was the designated driver for Nini and Gina (who probably wouldn’t drink either, but whatever), but the reckless courage building up in his stomach was making him think maybe someone had spiked his water bottle.

Then again, the bottle had been sealed when Ricky first opened it and he’d been careful to not let it out of his sight, so that probably wasn’t the case. Maybe it was just how close he and Red had gotten and the fact that Red didn’t seem to want to pull away either.

The conversation died down between them as Ricky felt himself leaning in closer. Had he meant to do that? He wasn’t sure. But he was almost certain that friends didn’t talk with their faces so close their noses were touching.

**_caught in the fire of youth_ **

As soon as Ricky’s lips met his, Red felt all coherent thought leave his mind. His hands found Ricky’s jacket and pulled him closer, causing Ricky to stumble into him, and push Red back against the wall. Not that Red minded.

Somewhere in the back of Red’s mind, he knew this wouldn’t end well. But for the moment, he didn’t exactly care.

**you don’t see cadillacs in my hometown**

**spent wasted nights on this ground**

Each time Ricky’s foot hit the ground, he pushed against it harder, propelling his skateboard further faster. He was hoping if the wind rushed loud enough in his ears, it would block out his thoughts.

He ended up at the skate park, which shouldn’t have been a surprise considering he’d gotten his skateboard out in hopes of skating towards a distraction of any sort. There weren’t many people at the park, given how late it was, but Ricky almost wished it were busier. The more noise the world around him was making, the less noise Ricky’s head could make. 

**spilled our hearts out on these streets**

**singing ‘time can wait for me, for me’**

Ricky wished his skateboard was louder, or there was more wind, or people were shouting, or there was anything to distract him from the fact that he had kissed his best friend last night and hadn’t spoken to him since. Maybe it would be easier if he’d gone somewhere besides the place he only ever went with Red by his side, or maybe it wouldn’t have mattered where Ricky ended up.

Ricky’s skateboard slipped out from under his feet, and he tumbled to the ground. He groaned as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. His knees would definitely be bruised in the morning.

His skateboard bumped into his foot softly, and Ricky looked up to see one of the kids he had Red had befriended when they’d first started skating looking down at him. Ben. That friendship hadn’t lasted very long, and for good reason.

**bruised knuckles here in your name**

“You’re missing your other half.”

Ricky grabbed his skateboard and stood up. He wasn’t sure he appreciated Red being referred to as his ‘other half’ at the moment.

“You’re missing an invitation to talk to me.” Ricky should go back home. Or maybe to Wal-Mart. Would Wal-Mart be louder? Probably not at this time.

“Oh, sorry,” Ben pouted. “You finally realized I was right all along about him?”

Ricky shoved Ben to the side and walked past him. He wasn’t getting into a fight right now, especially not over Red. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Red, let alone getting in a fight for him.

But Ben seemed to disagree.

**stole glory back and lost the shame**

It only took one more well-aimed insult attacking Red for Ricky to turn back around and swing at Ben’s face without fully realizing what he was doing. As soon as Ricky pulled his fist back, he looked down at in shock. he wasn’t sure if the blood on his knuckles belonged to him or Ben.

Ricky dropped his skateboard onto the ground and hopped on. Before Ben could come back after him, Ricky was gone.

**when those kids jumped ship, we stayed**

Ben and his friends had turned their backs on Ricky and Red as soon as they’d seen Ricky and Red weren’t afraid to show their affection towards one another. It had never been romantic - at least, Ricky didn’t think it had been - it had just been two friends hugging or holding hands to balance when they were first learning to skate or clinging onto each other but still falling because it had taken _months_ for Ricky and Red to be anything close to decent at skating.

As soon as Ben decided he didn’t like Ricky and Red anymore, he’d tried to tear them apart, but their friendship was a lot stronger than Ben had guessed, so he ended up giving up and just ignoring them. Ricky and Red’s friendship was unbreakable, and everyone knew that.

Or, everyone thought they knew that. But Ricky was worried he might have found the one way to ruin it.

**we stayed the same**

Ricky didn’t know where he was going, but now all of the memories he and Red had shared over the years were coming back. Sleepovers every other weekend, playing video games until sunrise, the stage in their lives where girls were suddenly really pretty and Red had patently listened to Ricky talk about Nini for hours on end when Red had never really seemed interested in any of the girls in their school. Ricky, in turn, listening to Red talk about being on their middle school’s robotics team and how incredible his teammates were even though Ricky hardly knew any of them.

**we stayed the same**

Ricky didn’t know where he was going, but his knuckles were really beginning to sting, and his legs were still achy from falling. He kept skating anyways, barely registering which streets he was going down and which houses he was passing. His feet did falter as he passed Red’s house, though, and he wondered if Red was there. If he was sleeping or if he was still awake. If he hated Ricky or if he was hoping their friendship still had a chance.

**we stayed the same**

Ricky didn’t know where he was going, but the night was growing colder the later it got, and he figured he should probably not stay out skating all night. Even if he wanted to. Even if it would distract him from what had happened between him and Red at the party. And of course, now he was thinking about it again. Thinking about how close they’d been leading up to it and how much he wished he could do it again.

**we stayed the same**

Ricky didn’t know where he was going, but when he ended up stopping in front of Nini’s house, he couldn’t bring himself to turn around. So he picked up his skateboard and knocked on the door. He wasn’t sure who he was hoping would answer the door, but he felt relieved when he saw Nini’s face.

**‘cause they say**

**they say**

“What are you doing?” Nini asked. “It’s late! Did you _skate_ here?”

Before Ricky could answer any of her questions, Nini pulled him inside and shut the door behind him. Unfortunately, she grabbed the hand that he’d used to punch Ben. Ricky winced and pulled away when Nini’s fingers brushed over his knuckles. Nini looked down at her hand, then at Ricky’s.

“What did you do?”

Ricky sighed miserably. “What _didn’t_ I do?”

Nini pursed her lips. It was clear she wanted answers, but instead of pestering Ricky any more, she grabbed his other hand and lead him into the bathroom. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

**youth is the lion we can’t tame**

Nini’s moms agreed to let Ricky stay the night before Nini even asked, no questions asked. They gave him pajamas and set up the couch with blankets and pillows by the time Ricky had finished changing. 

“You wanna talk about it?” Nini asked, once her moms were gone. Her eyes flitted down to Ricky’s hand.

“I messed up,” was the only explanation Ricky offered. After a few moments of silence, he added. “Nini, I think I’m bi.”

Nini silently pulled Ricky into a hug, and he didn’t need her to say anything. In fact, it might have been better that she didn’t because the hug said everything Ricky wanted to hear.

**we’ve got that wild blood in our veins**

On Monday, everyone was talking about the party and Ricky was wishing he’d followed through with his plan of faking sick to avoid Red. Nini and Gina were talking about it while Ricky walked with them to their first class. He was trying to tune it out, but he was having very little luck considering every other conversation he tried to eavesdrop on instead seemed to be about the party.

“So why’d you have to leave early?” Nini asked as they entered the photography classroom. 

“I got sick,” Ricky lied.

“Weird,” Gina commented. “Red said he went home sick too. Wonder if it was something you ate? Did anyone else end up sick?” Gina shot a side glance at Nini, who shrugged.

Ricky bit the inside of his cheek.

**youth is the fire, you’re my flame**

Red was not at lunch, and Ricky felt guilty for the relief that flooded his chest when he saw only Carlos, Seb, and Ashlyn were at their table. Ricky had been contemplating asking Nini if he join join her, Gina, and Kourt, but it looked like he wouldn’t have to.

“Do you know what’s up with Red?” Ash asked as soon as Ricky sat down. Did that really have to be the first thing out of their mouth? Why couldn’t Ricky catch a break?

Ricky shrugged and bit into his pizza. It tasted like cardboard.

“He made some excuse about having to do research for a Spanish project during lunch, but I thought the projects were due last week?” Ash stabbed a pear with their spork, but it slid right off as soon as they went to lift it to their mouth. They rolled their eyes and dropped the spork. “I mean, I take French, so I guess I don’t know that for sure.”

Seb shook their head. “Red’s in my Spanish class, and you’re right. The projects were due last Wednesday, and I’m pretty sure he turned his in on time.”

Ricky knew for a fact Red and turned his Spanish project in on time because they had been working on their projects together on Tuesday. Because of course they’d both put it off until the last minute.

“Maybe he’s still feeling sick?” Carlos suggested. “Nini said he went home early from EJ’s party because he got sick. I know the smell of cafeteria food makes my stomach turn even when I’m perfectly healthy.”

Seb slid their tray away from Carlos. Ricky took another bite of his cardboard pizza and refused to add anything to the conversation.

**and it’s just me, just you**

Ricky managed to avoid Red right up until rehearsal, when Big Red ended up in Carlos’ usual spot while Carlos worked with Seb on choreography. They were working on a scene with only Troy and Gabriella, but they kept messing the blocking up. Red was furiously writing notes as Ms. Jenn spoke to Ricky and Nini, but Ricky couldn’t even hear what she was saying. All he could hear was Red’s pencil scratching against his paper and the thumping of his heart.

“Ricky, are you listening?” Nini whispered.

Ricky’s eyes snapped to Nini. “Yes.” He couldn’t stop himself from sparing another glance at Red. “What did you say?”

**caught in the fire of youth**

Ms. Jenn sighed. “Okay. Take a five, you two. Nini, go grab Carlos and Seb so I can see where they’re at with choreography. Ricky, go get some water or something and come back _ready to focus_!” She lowered her voice and turned to Red. “You can go back to working on props now.”

Ricky shook his head and made his way out into the hallway, forcing himself to not shoot a glance back at Red.

**we could be giants, we can’t change**

**we’ve got that wild blood in our veins**

The hallway was silent and too bright. The lights were reflecting off the white walls and Ricky wanted to sit somewhere dark, preferably with his brain outside of his skull so he couldn’t think. 

Ricky got a drink of water before standing with his arms bracing himself up against the water fountain, staring down at the drips of water slowly making their way towards the drain. He had to pull himself together, he had to just focus on the scenes. That was what he wanted, right? Something to keep his mind off Red?

He shook his head again, trying and failing to clear his mind. 

**youth is the fire, you’re my flame**

**and it’s just me, just you**

Ricky did not make his way back to the stage. Instead, his feet took him to where he knew Red would be working on a prop of some sort. Ricky didn’t even realize what he was doing until the swung the door open and saw Red and Ash talking while working on something Ricky couldn’t quite see from where he was standing.

Both Ash and Red looked up at Ricky as the door slammed shut behind him. Ricky silently cursed himself for not paying more attention to where he was going. He was doing a lot of acting without thinking recently, and it was causing a lot of problems.

“Can I, uh, borrow Red for a minute?” Ricky asked Ash. 

They glanced at Red, who shrugged, so they nodded. “Sure. Go for it.”

Ricky wasn’t sure what he was planning on saying to Red, and he had approximately thirty seconds to figure it out.

**caught in the fire of youth**

Ricky’s heart was pounding so hard he thought it might jump out of his chest, and he wasn’t entirely against the idea of that happening at the moment. He heard the door fall shut behind them as he lead Red around the corner, still trying to formulate any comprehensible thought.

Ricky stopped walking and slowly turned to face Red. 

_you don’t see cadillacs in my hometown_

_spent wasted nights on this ground_

Red had been yelled at three times now to turn the volume down. Three times, he had complied only to start turning it back up little by little a few minutes later. It wasn’t _Red’s_ fault he was trying to block out what had happened between him and Ricky at EJ’s party last night. _Red_ hadn’t been the one to initiate it. Or maybe he had.

The image on Red’s TV screen froze as his character died _again_ and he groaned. He knew if Ricky was here, they would’ve beat this level in no time. But Ricky wasn’t here, and Red wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Ricky, even if he was playing the video game that had always been _their_ game that they played _together_. 

...Why had Red picked this game?

_spilled our hearts out on these streets_

Red tossed his controller aside and leaned back to look at his clock. It was late, but it wasn’t a school night, so what did it matter? Red knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways. If he tried to sleep, he would end up just laying in the dark, alone with his thoughts, and that was the opposite of what he needed right now.

Red turned off his TV and bounded up the stairs. He grabbed his helmet and skateboard and walked outside without bothering to tell his parents where he was going. They were probably asleep, and it wasn’t like they cared anyways.

The door shut quietly behind Red and he set his skateboard down before fastening his helmet. He didn’t want to go to the skate park, not when he was trying to avoid thinking about Ricky, so he settled for just skating around the block a few times.

_singing ‘time can wait for me’_

Red put his headphones on and turned the volume all the way up. He had to skip several songs before he found one that was good to just tune out the thoughts running through his head. Not that any song would do a great job of that at the moment.

But focusing on making his skateboard move and not letting the earbuds fall out of his ears helped, and Red began to breathe a little easier. As long as he kept moving, he wouldn’t start thinking, and as long as he didn’t start thinking, he was fine.

_shake neighborhoods til the a.m._

It was past one when Red ended up back inside his house, back in the basement, back playing a video game he and Ricky usually played together. He couldn’t play for long, though, before sitting so still became too much.

Red paused the game and went back upstairs. He searched the kitchen for something to eat, constantly switching from looking in the fridge to looking in the cupboards and back again so he wasn’t in one place for too long.

Finally, Red made himself a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and grabbed a Monster to go with it. Hopefully the caffeine would jumble his thoughts so much that he couldn’t think about _anything_. 

After that thought, Red grabbed another Monster.

_wake up with heavy words sent_

Red fell asleep shortly before dawn, and only because he physically couldn’t keep his eyelids open anymore despite the caffeine. He woke up much too late in the day after dreaming about Ricky’s arms around him and Ricky’s hand in his and Ricky--

Red marched up to the bathroom. He was not thinking about Ricky while he was awake. He couldn’t control his dreams, but he could control what he thought about during the day, and it was not going to be Ricky.

_with hearts on our sleeves, we scream_

Red’s parents were not home when he got out of the shower, and they were not home after Red got dressed and made himself Ramen Noodles for lunch. Normally, Red wouldn’t care, but he was so desperate for a distraction that he was ready to have a painful conversation with his dad about homework or computers or taxes. 

Or literally anything besides--

Red groaned and put his head in his hands. He slammed his fist against the table as if that would do anything to stop the memories of EJ’s party resurfacing in his mind.

_youth is the lion we can’t tame_

_we’ve got that wild blood in our veins_

On Monday, Red did not look for Ricky before class started. He went directly to his first class and thanked whatever God existed that Ash was already there, scrolling through Instagram and looking bored.

“Oh! Hi, Red.” They set their phone down on their desk. “You’re here early.”

Red shrugged. He couldn’t think of a good joke, so he just said, “I’m trying out something new.”

Ash frowned, but only for a moment. “Wait, Red, did you hear what happened at EJ’s party?”

Red felt his limbs go numb until Ash pulled up a picture of EJ passed out with a mustache and beard drawn on his face in bright pink and green. His muscles relaxed and Red began to laugh. Maybe today wouldn’t be completely terrible, especially if he had Ash to distract him.

_youth is the fire, you’re my flame_

_and it’s just me, just you_

Red fed Ash a lie about needing to do work for a Spanish project in the library during lunch so he wouldn’t have to face Ricky. Logically, Red knew he couldn’t hide forever, but what harm could one more day do? And who knows, maybe he would be able to spend the rest of the school year hiding in the library during lunch pretending to do research. Or maybe he could find a different table to eat lunch at.

Ash seemed hesitant to accept Red’s excuse, but since they didn’t take Spanish, they couldn’t prove that Red was lying, so they waved to Red as he went into the library and they headed to the cafeteria.

Red took a seat at one of the computers and regretted it almost immediately. What was he doing here? He’d already done all his homework this weekend to distract himself, so now he was stuck in front of a computer he had to pretend to use for schoolwork for the entire duration of lunch.

Red pulled his phone out, but turned it off as soon as he opened Instagram and was met with a picture Gina had posted of her, Nini, and Ricky from the party.

_caught in the fire of youth_

After suffering through lunch, the rest of Red’s classes weren’t so bad. He was actually grateful that his teachers had all planned stuff for them to do today, though most of the other students were not.

Red was in a pretty good mood by the end of the school day, right up until the bell rang and it hit him that he still had to make it through rehearsal.

_we could be giants, we can’t change_

_we’ve got that wild blood in our veins_

Ms. Jenn sent Carlos off with Seb, which both of them were very happy about, and then decided that Red should be the one to fill Carlos’ role. Even though Natalie was _right there_. But apparently Natalie had to help Kourt with costume stuff, so Red was all but shoved into the seat next to Ms. Jenn while Nini and Ricky went through a Troy and Gabriella scene.

Red did what he could to avoid looking at the stage, and instead focused on his paper and writing down every word that came out of Ms. Jenn’s mouth so he wouldn’t accidentally miss something Carlos would want. And so he wouldn’t have to listen to Ricky go through a scene where his character was in love with Nini’s.

Apparently, they were doing a pretty bad job with the scene because Ms. Jenn sounded exasperated when she told them to take a break. She sent Nini to get Seb and Carlos (and Red was pretty sure they’d be upset their time alone was cut short) while she sent Ricky off to get a drink. Then she told Red to go work on the props. Thank the Lord. That meant he wouldn’t have to see or hear Ricky anymore.

_youth is the fire, you’re my flame_

Red grabbed Ash to help him; ‘help him’ meaning ‘talk to him so he could keep his mind off Ricky’ but Ash didn’t need to know that.

Ash was easy to talk to, but the conversation today wasn’t exactly flowing since Red was hiding such a big secret from them. Ash must have noticed it too, because they finally asked, “Okay, what’s up? You’ve been off all day.”

“It’s nothing,” Red lied. He knew Ash wasn’t falling for it. “I mean, I guess I just--”

The door opened and then shut loudly, causing both Ash and Red to look up. Red silently thanked his lucky stars for the interruption before realizing his relief had been too soon.

Ricky was standing at the door.

_and it’s just me, just you_

“Can I, uh, borrow Red for a moment?” Ricky pulled at the hem of his sweater. Red could tell he was anxious. Red wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

Ash looked at Red and raised an eyebrow, clearing asking if he was okay with being ‘borrowed’. Red shrugged - what else was he supposed to do? If he said no, he’d have to explain why to Ash and he didn’t want to do that.

“Sure. Go for it.”

Red set the supplies in his hands down on the table and followed Ricky out of the room, making no effort to be fast about it. His palms were sweating and his breath was shaky.

_caught in the fire of youth_

Ricky stopped walking and turned to face Red. For several moments, neither one of them spoke. Ricky had been the one to bring Red out here, so he was assuming Ricky had something he wanted to say. But even if that wasn’t the case, Red wasn’t sure what to say either, so he just fiddled with his zipper until Ricky opened his mouth.

**_in the fire of youth_ **

“I’m sorry I kissed you.”

“Please don’t be,” tumbled out of Red’s mouth before he could stop it.

Ricky’s hands stilled and his knees went weak. “W-what?” He couldn’t have heard Red right. He’d ruined their friendship, he’d--

**_in the fire of youth_ **

“I don’t want you to be sorry.” Red wasn’t sure where his sudden confidence had come from, but it was probably the same as when he’d pulled Ricky closer to him at EJ’s party and decided that he didn’t care what happened in the morning because at least he’d gotten to kiss Ricky.

“I don’t want to be sorry either.” Ricky looked surprised by his words.

“Then why did you apologize?”

“I thought you wanted me to.”

**_in the fire of youth_ **

Ricky didn’t know how he wanted or expected Red to respond, but the kiss definitely caught him off guard. Not that he was complaining. 

Ricky wanted to keep kissing Red forever. Then they’d never have to actually talk about it or decide what labels they did and didn’t want to use or come out to anyone. Ricky also wanted to run away again, because he didn’t want to face the possible rejection that was coming after they broke apart. Even though Red rejecting him after kissing him was ridiculous. Logic had flown out of Ricky’s brain a while ago.

A soft gasp interrupted them, and Ricky and Red jumped apart.

**_in the fire of youth_ **

“Ms. Jenn sent me to call you back to the theatre,” Nini said, her eyes bouncing between the two boys. “Uh… that’s-- that’s all. I’ll...tell her it’ll be a couple minutes.” Nini furrowed her eyebrows, shot one final glance in Red’s direction, then rushed off.

Ricky watched Nini until the rounded the corner, then looked at Red. “So…”

Red laughed nervously, mostly because he didn’t know what else to do. Ricky gave him a small smile.

“We can talk after rehearsal?” Red suggested.

Ricky nodded. “Y-yeah. Let’s do that.”

**youth is the lion we can’t tame**

**we’ve got that wild blood in our veins**

Ricky was on edge for the rest of rehearsal, and he was sure everyone else could tell. Thankfully, Red was stuck backstage working on props, and Ricky was onstage for most of the time. Nini being his scene partner was helpful, because she knew why he was so jumpy (or at least part of the reason) and she was doing her best to help calm him.

But Ricky’s mind was still racing with everything that could happen when he talked with Red after rehearsal ended.

_youth is the fire, you’re my flame_

_and it’s just me, just you_

Red’s hands would not stop shaking, which was making working with the props incredibly difficult. Luckily, he was alone for the rest of rehearsal, so if no work got done today, no one would really know.

Red didn’t know what the conversation between he and Ricky after rehearsal would lead to. It was apparent they both had feelings for the other, but Red was a little terrified Ricky would want to stay friends. Red didn’t think he wanted to stay just friends after this. He wasn’t sure he could handle it.

**_caught in the fire of youth_ **

They walked to Ricky’s car in silence and Ricky was running through all of the things he could say in his head. He knew what he wanted to do, but he didn’t know how best to say it.

He unlocked his car and sat down in the driver’s seat while Red took the passenger seat. This felt like so many days before when they’d sat in Ricky’s car for no reason at all other than they wanted a change of scenery, or Ricky’s parents were fighting, or Red’s brothers were home and being obnoxious. But it was also so different than all the times before.

Ricky swallowed and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

**_we could be giants, we can’t change_ **

Red was trying to look anywhere besides at Ricky, trying to think of something to say. What were you supposed to say to your best friend who you also had feelings for and had kissed twice? Red was pretty sure there wasn’t a WikiHow article for that.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to think up something to say, because Ricky spoke up. “Do you, uh… Do you wanna maybe be my boyfriend?”

Red was almost certain his heart stopped.

**_we’ve got that wild blood in our veins_ **

In the few moments while Ricky’s question hung in the air between them, Ricky was sure their friendship was ruined forever.

But Red broke into a smile that could have literally lit up Ricky’s entire world and Ricky knew that they were going to be okay. Maybe they’d even be better than okay.

“Yes!”

Ricky now wished they’d done this outside the car so he could hug Red, but then he realized it didn’t matter. He had all the time in the world to hug Red as much as he wanted.

**_youth is the fire, you’re my flame_ **

Ricky’s face lit up as soon as Red answered and Red really wanted to kiss him again right then, but he refrained.

Ricky held it hand out and Red took it. “You wanna head back to my place? My dad probably ordered too many hot wings.”

Red squeezed Ricky’s hand. “I’d go anywhere with you.” It was probably too early to start with all the cheesy lines, but the blush that spread across Ricky’s face caused Red to decide he didn’t care.

**_and it’s just me, just you_ **

If Ricky’s dad noticed that he and Red were holding hands when they got home, or that their chairs were a little closer together than they should have been, or that Ricky entwined his arm with Red’s before they went upstairs after dinner, he didn’t say anything. 

As soon as Ricky’s bedroom door was shut behind them, he pulled Red into a gentle kiss. They broke apart easily this time, not fearing what would come after, and Red rested his forehead against Ricky’s.

“I hear EJ throws killer Christmas parties,” Ricky whispered. “Wanna go to this year’s?”

“Only if it’s with you.”

**_caught in the fire of youth_ **


End file.
